The present invention relates to the display and edit of data on computer systems and electronic devices. More specifically, the present invention is directed to an improvement for achieving higher utilization of the viewable area of a display unit (hereinafter referred to as a screen) with enhanced accuracy and efficiency when entering or editing characters within a data field.
The quantity of data managed by electronic devices and computer systems is growing at a phenomenal rate. This is due to many factors not the least of which is the mass migration of manual business processes to automated internet applications as we move to a more xe2x80x9cconnected worldxe2x80x9d. As more and more data is entered, displayed and edited in support of these and other applications by an ever increasing percentage of the world population, there is a growing need for enhancements that facilitate data editing accuracy and efficiency. (The term xe2x80x9ceditxe2x80x9d, as used hereinafter, is intended to encompass data entry, data update, data deletion and data insertion).
Computer systems and electronic devices manage the content and form of a screen during data edit and data display operations. Typically, the screen is a primary means of communication with the user of these systems and devices and, accordingly, the designer responsible for the content and form of displayed data must manage the screen in order to communicate effectively and efficiently. Since the size of the screen is very limited with respect to the vast quantity of information that may be displayed for any given application, the screen becomes a valuable resource that must be carefully managed.
When space is reserved on a screen for a particular data field (for example, reserving space for the street address of a sales contact) it is difficult for the application designer to know the maximum number of characters that would ever be needed. Using the street address as an example once again, an address may typically consume less than 25 characters whereas exceptions may consume hundreds of characters. The designer, utilizing prior art systems and methods, may resolve this problem by reserving a vast quantity of space on the screen to handle what is believed to be a maximum size. This is convenient for a user when dealing with very long character strings for a particular data field; however this approach renders a large portion of the screen unnecessarily reserved when shorter strings are used.
The designer, utilizing prior art systems and methods, may also decide to reserve a smaller portion of the screen to accommodate the typical amount of data entered for a particular data field. If the number of characters associated with a data field is greater than this typical value, then a subset of the characters is displayed in this reserved portion of the screen. The user is allowed to scroll the characters, typically using arrow keys on the keyboard, to view different portions of the field character data. This solution provides for more optimized utilization of the screen resource; however, those users dealing with longer character strings are greatly inconvenienced as they try to cope with displaying or editing data within a data field encumbered by a limited view of only a subset of the data at any given point in time.
Another trend that is increasing the use of electronic devices for displaying and editing data is the growing and accelerating pool of mobile users. Computerized applications are no longer constrained to the corporate desktop or home office, opening up opportunities for new types of applications with corresponding increases of data to be displayed and edited. Mobile users can choose from a plethora of devices that connect to Internet applications or perform as stand alone computational devices, or both. Examples include Personal Data Assistants (PDA), Internet connected cell phones, gaming devices, laptop computers, palmtop computers etc.
These mobile types of devices are designed to enhance portability by significant reductions in weight and size thereby making business and personal travel more convenient. While this trend facilitates portability, it also forces the user to cope with smaller screens than those typically found on desktop computer systems. This increases the scarcity of the screen resource and further exacerbates data display and editing problems by greatly increasing the probability that the space on the screen allotted to display or edit data for a particular data field is insufficient to contain all of the data associated with the data field. Trying to view or edit data, without the benefit of seeing a display of the entire string of data field characters associated with the data field at one time, greatly interferes with the efficiency of these processes as well as increases the probability that an editing error will be made.
Accordingly there is a need for improved ways of displaying and editing data on computers and electronic devices that can both optimize the utilization of the screen and at the same time provide for efficient and error free editing of long strings of data field characters. A designer utilizing prior art systems and methods is currently forced to choose between reserving greater amounts of valuable screen resource to accommodate a potentially long data field character string, or to conserve valuable screen resource and greatly increase the burden of those required to deal with longer data field character strings. It is highly desirable to both optimize utilization of the screen resource and at the same time provide efficiency and accuracy for those that may need to display or edit long data field character strings.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art briefly described above, the present invention provides a process, system or computer-readable medium for displaying and editing data with higher utilization of the screen resource while providing for improved editing efficiency and accuracy. A set of data field characters is displayed in a primary data field if the number of characters in this set of data field characters is equal to or less than the displayable capacity of the primary data field. If the number of characters in the set of data field characters is greater than the displayable capacity of the primary data field, then a proper subset of the set of data field characters is displayed in the primary data field in conjunction with the display of an indicia associated with the primary data field. In response to a user interaction with the indicia, the proper subset of data field characters and at least one additional character from the set of data field characters are displayed in a secondary data field, wherein the proper subset of data field characters and the at least one additional character are simultaneously viewable by the user in the secondary data field.
In this manner a primary data field can be defined to accommodate the number of data field characters typically associated with the data field while still providing the flexibility to generate a larger secondary data field whenever the displayable capacity of the primary data field is exceeded. Accordingly, higher utilization of the screen resource is achieved while enhancing the speed and accuracy of editing operations for long character strings.
Various advantages and features of novelty, which characterize the present invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and form a part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention and its advantages, reference should be made to the accompanying descriptive matter, together with the corresponding drawings which form a further part hereof, in which there is described and illustrated specific examples of preferred embodiments in accordance with the present invention.